The Mash Report

[mobias]

This is currently on BBC2. I was rather looking forward to it thinking optimistically it might pick up where The Day Today and Onion News Network left off. Then I remembered this is 2017 and the BBC so it has no budget and has to be filmed infront of a live studio audience, you know just in case people are so stupid they might take it seriously and won't know when to laugh.

What a load of shit. 

[Utter Shit]

Yeah, absolute dung. A shame because I think Nish Kumar is great. But this is wank.

EDIT: Geoff Norcott''s bit is decent.

[DrGreggles]

Yeah, I like Nish usually, but this was mostly dreadful.
Rachel Parris got a couple of laughs, but not much else.

The audience probably annoyed me the most.

[Autopsy Turvey]

EDIT: Geoff Norcott''s bit is decent.

It reminded me of the Ricky Gervais segments on The 11 O'Clock Show - this programme's spiritual forebear - but in an era where the only people you can get away with being 'ironically' unpleasant about are old people and people who live outside London. Surprised it's on BBC2, the majority of the show's material was campus radio level.

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

The Daily Mash is appalling and surely hasn't permeated the culture enough to be worth saddling a TV show with an association with it. Bin

[KennyMonster]

Nish's bits were OK, thought they were promising but the rest of it was so stilted it was cringeworthy.

Also thought that some of the fake 'headlines' they read out were bad but then they went on to show a mocked up photo to illustrate the naff joke they'd just made in case you didn't understand the concept of the joke and it made my brain die a little.

Then they did exactly the same thing in the opening segment of Newsnight, and you know what a cunt farm regular BBC news is.

[BeardFaceMan]

I know this is a bit of an odd criticism to make but Nish Kumar annoys me because he always sounds like he's telling a gag. He has that way of speaking, even when he's not doing material and just talking and being funny (like on As Yet Untitled) that makes him sound like he's always on the radio. Holly Walsh does a similiar thing too, it's like they're always 'on' and can't stop talking in a set/up punchline sorta way.

[Consignia]

Of course, it was utterly terrible. But isn't a bit strange to be running a topical comedy show over Parliament's summer recess? It's making it's thin basis for existing to almost nothing.

[mobias]

It reminded me of the Ricky Gervais segments on The 11 O'Clock Show - this programme's spiritual forebear -

Yeah good observation. The 11 O'Clock Show was utterly held together by Ali G and the Tommy Vance news slam segment. The rest of it was crap, from memory.

[Shit Good Nose]

I know this is a bit of an odd criticism to make but Nish Kumar annoys me because he always sounds like he's telling a gag. He has that way of speaking, even when he's not doing material and just talking and being funny (like on As Yet Untitled) that makes him sound like he's always on the radio.

Thank you.

I've been trying to figure out for ages exactly what it is about him that drives me up the fucking wall but I've never been able to pinpoint it.  But now you've highlighted it, it's obvious.


Didn't watch the show so can't comment specifically on it, just wanted to give imaginary karma to you, BeardFaceMan.

[notjosh]

I know this is a bit of an odd criticism to make but Nish Kumar annoys me because he always sounds like he's telling a gag. He has that way of speaking, even when he's not doing material and just talking and being funny (like on As Yet Untitled) that makes him sound like he's always on the radio. Holly Walsh does a similiar thing too, it's like they're always 'on' and can't stop talking in a set/up punchline sorta way.

Identified by Lee & Herring many years ago as ^{going up at the start of the sentence...} _{and down at the end of the sentence.}

[touchingcloth]

Thank you.

I've been trying to figure out for ages exactly what it is about him that drives me up the fucking wall but I've never been able to pinpoint it.  But now you've highlighted it, it's obvious.


Didn't watch the show so can't comment specifically on it, just wanted to give imaginary karma to you, BeardFaceMan.

I was going to say pretty much the same thing - nailed it. Except it's not so much that he goes up at the start of the sentence and then down at the end, more that he remains smugly nasal throughout. I quite like him, but that's very much in spite of rather than thanks to his voice.

[touchingcloth]

I haven't watched this show yet - I'll probably give it a whirl tonight if there's nothing better in the schedule - but is it really written by the people from The Daily Mash? The website that has one joke which it has been recycling for about four years now? Which seems like it has a "staff" of about ten teenage boys who rewrite that same joke in between lessons?

"FACEBOOK needs to stop telling people how long they have been friends on Facebook, because no-one gives a shit, it has been confirmed."

Take some passive-aggressive social media post aimed at garnering a quick few likes, and stick something newsy-sounding at the end. Repeat until the planet dies. I assume that's what the show was like.

[touchingcloth]

I've just watched the first five minutes. Urgh. The worst thing isn't the utterly predictable gag writing where the language and mannerisms from one culture are put into the mouths of people from a different one ("I deserve the big cheddar because I spit sick bars, says Fiona Bruce"), but the dreadful acting where they just don't manage to sell things convincingly. At no point do you feel like you're watching a slightly surreal news show, more that you're watching the cast off jokes from HIGNFY's writers delivered by people trying yet failing to mark themselves out as exciting new comedy performers.

Chris Morris in full Paxman mode getting irate about Uzi MC, the blood rap movement and Herman the Tosser it really isn't. Unless the final 25 minutes change drastically.

[hard rocx and mettals]

I've just watched the first five minutes. Urgh. The worst thing isn't the utterly predictable gag writing where the language and mannerisms from one culture are put into the mouths of people from a different one ("I deserve the big cheddar because I spit sick bars, says Fiona Bruce")

That was what that was supposed to be? I thought it was just a reheat of Dead Ringers' Kirsty Wark impression ('More on that story later.')

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

Just looked at the wikipedia page and was surprised to learn that TDM has nothing to do with Sour Mash, the satirical print mag launched by ex-NME hack Johnny Cigarettes back in 2002. Which surprised me. I always assumed it was just the online-only rebirth of the failed print version.

[15percentfaster]

It was fine, I've seen worse. 

What really distracted me though was the audience sitting on really uncomfortable looking fold up chairs.  Strange.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

I did see a parody of TDM on someone's blog long ago (some minor comedy writer/performer person, no one memorable). The joke was to describe the self-satisfaction of a TDM writer in the style of a TDM article. The whole thing really was better than the thing it was satirising. Can't find it now though, would be at least 5 years ago.

[yesitsme]

It was a bit up and down, trying to be too many things I thought.  If it could settle down, lose the Two Ronnies bit and the Twitter comments it might be ok.

Do we really need another sideways glance at the week's news?  And seeing as all the MPs are off there's not really much scope for LOL NO satires is there?

That said I hope it doesn't get cancelled out of hand, give it a chance I say.

[Gurke and Hare]

Is it live? They should read out real tweets that are slagging it off if so.

[3S96]

One of the presenters slept with my ex-girlfriend, he was married at the time, and possibly still is. I don't like the show, but that's not the reason why.

[shiftwork2]

Are the correspondents supposed to be fictional?  The woman doing the tweets has a schtick that grates almost immediately, and the Two Ronnie bit is plain odd.  The dude is ok.  Interested to see how this pans out.

[Mango Chimes]

This is absolute shit. A collection of every shit variety of this shit bollocks that Britain is so repeatedly shit at. It makes me angry how shit it is. Total shit. Shit, mate. Shit.

Like, properly fucking dreadful. The cast of thousands apparently there to show the multitudinous ways you can Speak Like A Cunt.  WHY ARE THEY ALL SPEAKING LIKE THAT? AND THAT? AND THAT? Slim pickings, low hanging, rotten fruit of lazy targets performed like a fucking incompetent student comedy course doing a self-satisfied cunt's performance for the worst children's party in the world, being lapped up by a fucking rotten studio audience of easily pleased overclapping fuckfaced fucking fucks.

The worst of Newsjack meets the 11 O'Clock Show meets 10 O'Clock Live meets that thing with Ben Elton and Alexa Chung meets fucking awful awful shit.  *Round of applause after no real punchline because it's the end of another fucking segment*

Bad.  It's so bad.  I don't like it.

[jobotic]

Is it the same arsehole crowd that were at 10 O'clock Live, only this time with eighties trousers?

[yesitsme]

Is it the same arsehole crowd that were at 10 O'clock Live, only this time with eighties trousers?

Not seen this week's but if week 1 was anything to go by then yes.

What sort of person goes to watch a TV show being made?  Fuckwits that's who.  Sit around for hours watching mic's being fitted and cameras moved, see the joke twenty times from every angle, see the actors mucking up, get the back of your head in silhouette - what's wrong with you?

I'm going to watch this tomorrow probably and I'll be adding the crowd in to my ranking system of Audience Twats (current, udisputed leader QI).  I expect them to slot in between Ant&Dec's and Take Me Out.

As for the idea it's clearly 'See what's popular on US telly?  Do that but with bantz x 100'.

As said previously I'd like to see shows given a chance (as long as the concept is ok - eff you Nightly Show).  If it can be self critical and axe what is and what isn't working and improve but then if TV could do that MtW would have gassed itself years ago wunnit?

[Captain Z]

I hated that bit where they actually made a big deal of pointing out that the presenter was ASIAN. Are we really still doing that 'hey look a minority in a prominent position!' in 2017? And the audience whooping and cheering to make sure they don't look racist. It hadn't even registered with me at that point, my mind had simply processed him as presenter.

[notjosh]

I hated that bit where they actually made a big deal of pointing out that the presenter was ASIAN. Are we really still doing that 'hey look a minority in a prominent position!' in 2017? And the audience whooping and cheering to make sure they don't look racist. It hadn't even registered with me at that point, my mind had simply processed him as presenter.

Yes, in a bold shake-up of the format it's an Asian man in a suit behind a desk in front of a picture of some tall buildings doing all the satires.

[Mini]

I hated that bit where they actually made a big deal of pointing out that the presenter was ASIAN.

To be fair it's quite the coup to get Aslan as your host. He barely does any presenting work these days.

[doppelkorn]

I also hate Nish Kumar's voice, and don't find him funny.

And I've not seen this, for those reasons and more.

OK then.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

watching the cast off jokes from HIGNFY's writers delivered by people trying yet failing to mark themselves out as exciting new comedy performers.

Oh please please no

I mean that was what it was probably going to be like but still, urgh